Fasts & Feasts

February 15 - March 26

The Holy and Great Fast

February

21 - 1st Sunday of the Great Fast (Sunday of Orthodoxy)
27 - All Souls Saturday
28 - 2nd Sunday of the Great Fast (Palamas)

March

6 - All Souls Saturday
7 - 3rd Sunday of the Great Fast (Veneration of the Cross)
13 - All Souls Saturday
14 - 4th Sunday of the Great Fast (Climacus)
18 - Canon of St. Andrew of Crete
20 - Akathistos Saturday
21 - 5th Sunday of the Great Lent (Mary of Egypt)
25 - Annunciation to the Mother of God

March 27-April 4

Great and Holy Week

28 - Palm Sunday

April

4 - Pascha

You are here : Home News New church bombings in Iraq; nervous Christians plan quiet Christmas

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New church bombings in Iraq; nervous Christians plan quiet Christmas

Two Christian churches in Mosul have been struck by bombers, continuing a campaign of intimidation that Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk has characterized as the “ethnic and religious cleansing” of Iraq. Three people were killed and several others wounded in the December 23 attacks—adding to the casualty list that had included one child killed and 40 people injured in bombings at churches a week earlier.

In Basra, Chaldean Catholic Bishop Imad al Banna asked the faithful “not to display their joy, not to publicly celebrate the feast of the Nativity,” because of fears that they might provoke a hostile reaction from the Shi’ite majority in that city.

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O Savior, save me!

O Master, I have not kept Your Commandments. By my own free choice I yielded to the passions of sensual pleasure. I have stripped myself of grace. I lay wounded and naked. I pray to You, O Savior: save me!

Matins of the Fourth Sunday of the Fast

Wisdom from the Church Fathers

If you want, or rather intend, to take a splinter out of another person, then do not hack at it with a stick instead of a lancet, for you will only drive it in deeper. And this is a stick – rude speech and rough gestures. And this is a lancet – tempered instruction and patient reprimand. “Reprove,” says the Apostle, “rebuke, exhort,” but he did not say “beat” (2 Timothy 4:2). And if even this is required, do it rarely, and not with your own hand.

St. John Climacus, “The Ladder of Divine Ascent", Step 8, On Freedom From Anger and On Meekness
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